Saturday, September 24, 2011

The latest projections have the UARS satellite contacting the earth's atmosphere around 11 AM Sydney time - and there still remains a chance that some of the doomed spacecraft will made make landfall in Australia.

For me, this falls under the "Tornado Rule.": I want to see the damn thing! But I don't want anyone to get hurt, of course...

Friday, September 23, 2011

The number of children living in poverty in the United States increased by 2.6 million since the recession began in 2007, bringing the total to an estimated 15.7 million poor children in 2010, according to researchers from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
The researchers estimate that nearly 1 in 4 children under the age of 6 now live in poverty.

Most of their parents do and will continue to vote for politicians who say the poor should pay more taxes and the rich should get more tax breaks. Figure that one out.

Monday, September 12, 2011

‎"Intrauterine Cannibalism" is the name given to a practice found in some shark species wherein the strongest shark pup of a litter eats all its brothers and sisters - while they're still in the womb - providing it with the physical and psychological nourishment it needs to ensure it is born fat, fit, and savage as a meth-addled mongoose.

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), better known as the Tasmanian tiger, has long been the poster child for human-caused extinction. Hunted out of existence by Australian farmers who feared that the striped, canine-like marsupials would kill their sheep, the last thylacine died in captivity in Hobart Zoo 75 years ago next week, on September 7, 1936 (although the species was not officially declared extinct until about 25 years ago).

Now, just a few days before the annual observance of National Thylacine Day in Australia, a new study reveals that the predator was probably not a threat to sheep after all. Its notably long jaw (one of the animal’s most distinctive features) could open to an amazing 120 degrees but was too weak to kill sheep, according to a study published September 1 in the Journal of Zoology.

Great. (The 120° claim is a commonly repeated myth, I've read, just to note. They could open their mouths very wide, maybe to near 80°.)